Woman, 21, thrown 130 feet to her death in tragic rope jump accident buried in Brazil

(KTLA) - A 21-year-old woman who died in dramatic fashion, after two rope jumping instructors threw her from a bridge without first harnessing her to security equipment, was buried Sunday in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state. Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was going rope jumping Saturday at Ponte do Esqueleto, an abandoned bridge in the municipality of Limeira, where tourists practice extreme sports. The woman, who aspired to become a physical education teacher, had asked to be launched from the bridge airplane-style, with two instructors hoisting her above their shoulders as she spread out her arms. Footage shared online shows two men in white helmets launching Freites into a 40-meter (130-foot) abyss without attaching her to any security equipment as an onlooker screams at the instructors to attach her to a cord. The instructors are wearing harnesses that appear to be attached to a security rope. Rope jumping is an extreme sport that differs from bungee jumping in the type of cord used and the resulting motion of the fall. Bungee jumping uses elastic rubber cords that create a vertical, bouncing effect, whereas rope jumping uses low-stretch climbing ropes that convert the fall into a horizontal, pendulum swing. Police in Brazil have arrested three men who worked for the company offering rope jumps over the woman’s death. Officials have also initiated an investigation that could lead to murder charges. The video of Rodrigues de Freitas falling to her death has gone viral on social media platforms, where internet users are describing her death as a surreal case of negligence. Witnesses, including her fiancé, were filming when de Freitas, who had purchased a guided tour from a private company that included the rope jump, was carried by three staff members to the edge of a plank off the side of the bridge while wearing a helmet and thrown over. A police helicopter was called, but the physical education and sports management graduate was declared dead at the scene. Her fiancé reportedly became ill moments after rushing to the scene and had to be taken to the emergency room, People reported. “It was a team that wasn’t regulated,” local Delegate Andrea Dantas Levy told the Brazilian outlet. “They didn’t even have authorization to be there. And this fatality happened today, in my perception, due to a failure to verify and supervise the placement of the rope on the victim’s jump.” An attorney for the three men told the outlet that the crew involved in the deadly accident is very experienced and described the incident as an unprecedented tragedy. The Limeira City Council is expected to file a complaint against the Brazilian federal government over a lack of security around the abandoned bridge, which sits on federal land despite posing well-documented risks for years, People reported. The Associated Press contributed to this report.